Celebrating Creativity

I am a creative artist celebrating and encouraging the creative in all of us.

My blog is a discussion, and creativity resource. Please take your time, look around and join the conversation if you would like to.
It is my passionate belief that we all have deep within us a creative genius just waiting for half a chance to get out no matter what field we work or play in.

''There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it.''
Martha Graham

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Putting the Heart into Art – that’s it in a nutshell really. Are you familiar with the term Heart Intelligence . Its a fascinating concept and many artists and creatives use their Heart Intelligence quite intuitively when they work.

Heart Intelligence requires 2 skills, one is to be internally aware in any given moment of what you are feeling ( not what you think you should be) and also simultaneously having relational awareness i.e. the ability of knowing others. I think that what art does is allows you to access that place in your heart , and express that through your chosen medium. After all every creative work is an expression of the internal awareness of its creator and putting it out there to be shared with others.. I have had a couple of extraordinary experiences in which a painting told me an amazing story that I didn’t know was unfolding even as I was painting it.

Allow me to share this with you and I think you may well agree that it was an amazing experience. This story begins actually with the end of a painting . The painting you see below was finished.

Abstract landscape

I put down the brush and knew that it didn’t require another brushstroke. So what’s the problem you may well ask. Well the problem was that it didn’t feel finished. When you do something do you ever have to reach an internal place that feels just right to you, in order to feel it is complete and move on. Well I always look for that when I’m painting.

So to return to the painting – I looked and looked at it – went away, came back, left it over night, sat in front of it again – nah – still that nagging feeling and still no solution. Left it another night , came down the stairs into the studio the next morning and walked right up to it and turned it around, till it looked like this! And it was complete!

The Watcher

Well that was literally a shocking experience – here was a painting I had tried so hard to paint as an abstract, using some melded landscape photos and look what turned up.

Now do you know anything about symbolism? Well I was familiar with a bit of it and immediately recognized several symbols in this picture. There I was sitting on a rock with a hood on my head. The hood was piereced with holes. Behind the figure back to back is another figure looking out into a landscape and off to the right hand side of the picture a rather obese looking person slinking around – I was struggling with weight issues at the time. Then there are more shadowy figures in the dark area at the upper left of the painting. All these figures represented someone in my life at that time – it was a chillingly acurate portrait of my life during that period – I was in shock for several days. My heart, intuition call it what you will made me pay attention to myself in a way I could no longer ignore – it was truly amazing.

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Our first assignment is to describe the people we want to visit and read our blogs.

I am an artist and my real passion is creativity. The people who may experience an instant connection to this blog are those who recognize that they are creative. Although I am primarily a visual artist and now a budding writer, I would like to think that creatives from all walks of life will gain benefit from my blog. The issues I post about are usually related to the creative journey in some way, offering insights and knowledge gained during the course of my creative career.

However I would also like to think that my blog offers food for thought to those of us who don’t think they have any creativity. That it might give them the courage to have a look and be delighted and surprised at their own- magnificence – to not put too finer point on it. It is my passionate belief that we all have a creative genius within us waiting to be uncovered and so my blog is to encourage those of us who haven’t discovered this part of themselves yet.

In particular I would like to reach out to people in the business world who think that creativity is largely irrelevant in that arena. They couldn’t be more wrong, especially in today’s economic environment. If you have any doubts about this – read Seth Godin’s latest book –Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

The other group of people who may enjoy this blog are those who are interested in self development. Unfolding one’s creativity, is a journey of the soul and calls to all of us if we are able to hear and be open to our voice within. So many of my students are amazed at the qualities they find themselves developing through their art practice.

Therefore if you like reading my blog you probably fall somewhere between the ages of 20 and 120, you might live anywhere in the world and currently most likely speak English. Your interests probably lie more in the arts than sciences and you may be interested in developing innovative changes in your business environment. You enjoy personal challenges and are interested in the arts and creativity.

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You know, It’s amazing how when you commit to something, so many other things suddenly pop out of the woodwork to assist you on your path.

Not only have I joined the Next Top Spiritual Author competition this month but recognizing that I have a commitment to building a more vibrant blog, I also signed up for the 4-week BlogTriage class with Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield.

I was tempted to not sign up and dithered around a bit, wondering how I was going to find time for it all, however I also recognized that this is something I really need to do right now to move my blog forward. I tend to be one of those people who take the widget out of the box and only read the manual 10 hours later when I get stuck. Hmmm …… sound familiar to anyone?